Read Mercury Mind (The Downfall Saga Book 1) for Free Online

to make your father and I look bad? Who would want to hire us as scribes when they see how useless our daughter is?”
    “I’m sorry, Mother. I will make you proud. I promise.” A steady stream of tears were now running down her face.
    “You had better make me proud. I’ll be checking with your teachers, so you had better finish your homework every night. I will know if you do poorly on an assignment or turn one in late, so you had better not be wasting time with the other students.”
    “I will.”
    Leaving the fireside, her Mother advanced towards her and loomed over top of the desk. “Then prove it. If you are incapable of copying a simple paragraph in the comfort of your own home, then why should I believe that you can do better once you start class at Haven?”
    Ravyn took several minutes to calm herself. Drying her tears on the sleeve of her dress, she picked up a fresh piece of paper and started transcribing the poem. Her Mother stood motionless by her shoulder, staring down at her writing. Finishing the poem, Ravyn handed the page to her Mother who caressed it with her eyes before setting it down on the desk.
    “There may be hope for you yet,” said her Mother. “Now, I expect you to talk to the Headmaster when you get there. Find out about every field of study and have him help setup meetings with the heads of each department. You must write to me, telling everything that you learned so I can help you select a program. It’ll take some time, but I’ll have a study schedule ready for when you come home next summer.”
    “I thought that I didn’t specialize until the third year.”
    “You can never get started too early. Admittance occurs at the end of the second year, but we will have to select the proper classes for your second year, which I’ll get you prepared for over the summer.”
    “That makes sense, I guess,” said Ravyn, cleaning the end of her pen with an old rag, before carefully straightening the stack of blank paper on the desk. “What if I want to stay in the general program?”
    “We’ll make sure that does not happen. Once I help you select one, I expect you to put all of your efforts towards achieving admittance.”
    “Then it’s a good thing that I already know what I want to be ... a War Wizard.”
    “Get that rubbish out of your head. You are not living in those fantastic books you waste your time reading. This is the real world. You’ll become a Healer or an Artificer, they are always in demand. Still, you will talk to the person in charge of every program. I’ll write a letter to the Headmaster asking if I can interview all of them once the year is over.”
    “Mother, may I be excused so that I can finish packing. I’d hate for any of my clothes to become wrinkled.” Her mother nodded and she fled up to her room.
    Her room was neat and organized. A mahogany dresser, and mirror stood against the far wall, both freshly polished. A simple bed sat in the middle of the wall, and a shelf sat beside the window, displaying a series of misshaping dolls. The only decorations in the room were the ones she’d made herself. Simple navy blue curtains hung by the windows, a lace skirt surrounded her bed and the dolls on the shelf. The dolls had improved over the years, the latest one only had a couple of lumps in its stuffing and was nearly symmetrical.
    A trunk sat open at the end of the bed. She had already filled most of it with her books and other school supplies, but hadn’t started packing her clothing. Walking over to the row of dolls, she straightened the littlest one on the end which had slumped onto its side.
    “I’m going to miss you,” she said to her dolls, “but Mother won’t let me take you with me. Don’t cry, I’ll be back next summer, and I’ll have real friends, not that I don’t appreciate the friendship that all of you have shown me.” She wiped the eyes of the doll with her thumb.
    Leaving the dolls behind, she focused on her packing. She read the